Why Stupid People Succeed

Have you ever looked at a stupid person who was very successful and thought to yourself, “how in the heck is someone that dumb so successful?” I have. And I think I have an answer.

(To be clear, when I say “stupid” and “dumb” I am not talking about IQ, or education or grades, or SAT scores. I am talking about a simple lack of common sense and rational thinking. By that definition, even people with great grades and high IQs can be stupid.)

There are I think a couple of qualities that many stupid people have that allows them to succeed (and often to succeed more than “smart” people). Today I will be focusing on one: confidence

Over my years as an improv comedian, I have gone to many improv shows. Once, I went to see a show that was taking place in a theater after another scripted play finished. As I stood outside and waited for the patrons of the play to clear out, I got to listen to a woman from the improv group try to convince the theater attendees to stick around for their show.

“Do you like comedy? Then you have to stay for our show.”
“Do you really love to laugh? This is the show for you?”
“Have you ever laughed so hard your belly hurt? That’s what will happen if you stick around and see our show.”

Those are some big promises, and make the show sound awesome. I don’t know if her sales pitch worked on anyone, but she keep pitching. My expectations were high.

You can probably see where this is going…

Yup. This was quite possibly the least funny, worst performed comedy show I have ever seen. I am not exaggerating to make my point. This was just bad. Just. Bad.

After the show (somehow I stuck around for the whole thing) I remember being astonished at the the woman’s sale pitch.

“How could she say those things?? Like comedy? Love to laugh? Your belly will hurt?? What the heck was she smoking??”

My analytical mind could not wrap itself around how a person could speak so highly about a show that sucked so hard.

Sure, it’s improv, so you never know exactly how the show will turn out, but they had to have some sense of the quality level, right? Right???

Now that some years have passed and I can look back on it more objectively, I realize that I am quite jealous of that woman. That’s right: jealous.

Why am I jealous? Because, frankly, I wish I could have that kind of “confidence unbounded by logic.” I can be waaaay too logical in my thinking when it comes to confidence and self-promotion. I know my blog and presentations are great, but I also know that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. So rather than standing on the rooftops telling everyone how much they’ll love my stuff, I sometimes fall into a much weaker message of, “check it out, you might like it.” I am sure a lot of you fall into the same trap.

In this way, the stupid person may have the advantage. With an inability (or unwillingness) to be open-minded, see the angles, and realize that others may not think the way they do, the stupid person allows their confidence to bloom unfettered by the chains of reason. All of us smart people could learn a thing or two from the stupid.

Sadly, our world is not a meritocracy. The best do not always succeed the most. This is a tough pill to swallow, because it seems so unfair. Especially to us smart folk who were taught growing up that all we had to do was do well in school and we would be fine.

We see this all the time:

The guy who is a jerk but dates lots of women because he has the confidence to ask.

The salesperson who comes across as slick and annoying but still sells because he has the confidence to keep asking for the sale.

The executive who has really stupid ideas but says them with such confidence that people buy in.

And on and on

This is not to say that ability doesn’t matter. In fact it does very much. But nine times out of ten, confidence without ability beats ability without confidence.

Obviously, the best bet is to have ability and confidence. But if you think you are pretty good at what you do but feel you do not have the success you deserve (and see other, “less deserving” folk attaining), then step back, believe in yourself, run to the nearest rooftop and scream to the world how awesome you are! A little confidence can go a long way.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go write a blog post so good it will make your belly hurt…

Following the example of this blog post:Would you like to have the most awesome, funniest, most impactful motivational humorist ever to help make your next event a resounding success? Then visit Avish’s Motivational Humorist page and book him now!

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By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation.
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This post rings quite true. I don’t know how many times I’ve thought to myself ‘How the hell is this person so successful? They’re such an idiot!!’ I’ve always wondered what the “trick” was that they knew and I didn’t. Confidence is something I never considered.

Great post! Confidence does kill, but the ability to objectively reflect on one self may be preventing the intelligent from enacting it as well; we don’t want to seem arrogant! (Even saying “we” makes me feel arrogant, but me is not exactly stupid either haha). We must be modestly confident! Hopefully our actual ability will in turn be recognized by others, like it has in this case– I work for your brother Rajiv and after telling him about my desire to do comedy, he turned me on to your site. Nice work– I think you have left me material-less if I ever want to do any bits about driving!

Hi Vinnie, thanks for the comment (and sorry I missed it earlier and didn’t respond then)! I am glad you like the site – feel free to do buts about traffic – there are more than enough stupid driving stories to go around! how is the comedy going?

Why is it so true. It seams that most stupid people that succeed always fall into something. Who would have ever thought that confidence is something that they don’t lack only since they don’t know any better.
Great post!
All we should really consider is helping people but with the confidence they can trust.

I saw you once when you came OKC NSA last year (or was it this year). Great presentation.

I’ve been sharing this article via my twitter account every other day for the past week. Each time it is getting between 20 – 50 clicks. So you might be seeing a spike in people reading this article even though it is over a year old.

Im 21 and consider myself a genius. though I haven’t started a year of college, and I’m a delivery driver, I have the mind to succeed. i think we just overthink the crowd. dumb people do well because majority of everyone is dumb. if a dumb person with all the confidence is pitching to a room of ‘smart’ people, the dumb will be booed out the door. dumb people win because majority of people are dumb. i bet a few people at the comedy show laughed at the comedians you, ‘smart’ one, thought was unfunny.

But what also makes dumb people succeed is the fact that they have assistants or co-ordinators that work out the logistics of their stupid idea and put it altogether whilst working out the kinks, making it into a great idea.

Better to lack confidence than to indulge ignorance. I am sickened by all these people asking, “how can I fit in” or “how can I socialize more easily,” etc. and the lame-duck responses they get. The lowest level of humanity (subhumanity) are these confident idiots. Above that is the clever man who can get ahead in the game. The highest are those who realise it’s a joke, that you don’t need any of it, and that the approval of fools and gaudy trinkets profit us nothing if we have to become like them to gain it.

Those who are trying to find out how to ‘go along to get along’ are still lacking in illumination (as the Gnostics would say).

Tiff is quite passable in her attempt at rationalizing things. “Fitting in” and “socializing” are for the journeymen – nobody would give you a straight answer as they are simple and the question sounds like “how do I breathe?” Let’s see if she could walk her talk but well, people are just people, I don’t serve their stupidity and, I concede that nowadays I feel that bad audience is not better than no audience.

Attacking and disturbing the demography for its many faults are always good sports other than controlling it and I know that what I am doing is right.

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